White Flowers

On a couple recent spring Saturday paint-outs we had some beautiful white flowers blooming.  I was happy to get to try some Matilija poppies again last week at Bailey Canyon Park.  I painted these at Eaton Canyon a few years ago, Matilijas.  A few weeks ago we were at Memorial Park in Pasadena where the white iceberg roses were blooming.  Hard to believe it's been six years since I painted there, Another Park!  We've had some beautiful flowers this spring after our rainy winter.

Watercolor 7" x 5"

Watercolor 5" x 7"

Poppies!

This spring I've done some blog posts titled for the flowers I've been finding on paint-outs.  We were back at Arlington Garden recently and I was happy to see the red poppies were blooming as well as the orange California poppies.  It was the spectacular wisteria blooming on my previous visit which I painted, Almost Spring!

Arlington Garden is always changing.  There is always something new being added.  And it's always wonderful to be there.  I tried a view to the east with some of the poppies.  This view includes an old table with a striped umbrella that I last painted four years ago after taking a workshop from Alvaro Castagnet.   I had only been doing plein air painting for a couple months at that time.  I'll post the watercolor below.  Quite a difference.  I guess I'm changing as well as Arlington Garden!

8" x 10" Watercolor

The labyrinth in the foreground.

Some red poppies

Matilija poppy

11" x 8" Watercolor, 2012

Another Hillside

In my previous post, we were painting Near the Rose Bowl.  Just a few feet away is the Arroyo Seco Flood Control Channel.  It seems like I've been painting near flood control channels frequently since going out with the L.A. River paint-out group and, as always, our adventurous Saturday plein air group.  So on a recent Saturday, about two miles south of the Rose Bowl Stadium, the group met next to the channel because we've found the pretty Matilija poppies there.  The poppies were blooming out in the sun where they like to grow.  Unfortunately, I don't like to paint in the direct sun.  There was one, lone tree next to the channel which we all painted under.  And we chose other views to paint rather than the poppies.  I chose the hillside opposite the tree.  Dog walkers were a constant sight and it was fun to add some.  There wasn't a drain in the channel walls at that point so I had to find another drain that I felt my painting needed.  The one I found had a sweet little cat napping under it.  I hoped she has a better home than the channel.

10" x 8" Watercolor

The Matilija Poppies

The view south - the channel and La Loma Road bridge 

  

Matilijas!

It's Mother's Day so I think some beautiful Matilija "fried egg" poppies would be appropriate to post!  I've tried to paint these poppies quite a few times.  The plein air painters love Matilija blooming season and we're lucky to have some nice plantings of them nearby.  My latest post about them was More Matilijas! 

These Matilijas were blooming at Eaton Canyon in Pasadena.  It's a large nature center and there are usually several school buses of visiting kids on field trips.  Volunteers guide small groups of children through the nature trails.  While painting, I've overheard lessons on a few subjects like poison oak, lizards, and snakes.  I was painting these poppies near the picnic tables where a guide was sharing a small gopher snake with the kids after they ate lunch.  You can see a couple fellow painters in the distance.  Sometimes artists are interesting for the children to watch too and we have an audience! 

10" x 8" Watercolor

More Matilijas!

In June I posted two paintings of the Matilija Poppies that are so spectacular in Matilija Poppies!.  I went with groups on two more paint-outs with the blooming white poppies as our subjects.  Time to post the watercolor and gouaches!

There is a big cluster of the special poppies growing in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena.  I painted a watercolor and a gouache the Friday the group was there. 

The next day the Saturday paint-out group went to the lower Arroyo Seco in Pasadena to see another area where the poppies are growing.  Those were the most gorgeous of the big poppy areas I saw this season.  The white poppies were the largest, most ruffled, most fluffy, and in the best condition.  Luckily for us painters both days were overcast since the poppies like to grow in full sun.  They don't like to be under trees as some of us painters do!  The bees really love the poppies as well and were very busy both days.  I painted a quick gouache before the sun got too hot and before the bees chased us away. 

The Arroyo poppies are across a wash from the Lower Arroyo Casting Pond.  It's so calm and such a pretty green color.  It's begging to be painted some day.  I'll include a view of it from the drive down into the pond area. 

8x10" watercolor

5x7" gouache

5x7" gouache

The La Loma bridge in the distance.

  

Matilija Poppies!

May was the month for the paint-out groups to paint the striking Matilija poppies.  In April we were all in the gardens painting the red poppies.  It turns out that the white Matilija poppies are native to Southern California and Mexico.  They bloom here in spring and summer, and are also known as tree poppies because they can grow to 8 feet high.  The pretty, silvery blue-green leaves are large and deep-cut.  Of course the flowers are what we painters love.  The fluffy white flowers get to five inches across with large, intense yellow-orange centers.  Their name "fried egg" poppies fits well.  

My first plein air try with the poppies was a small patch of them at Bailey Canyon Park, in Sierra Madre.  I thought a gouache piece might work best considering the white flowers.  I also painted a piece with transparent watercolors.  I'll add a small gouache piece I painted in February at the same place when there were no poppies blooming.  There are more Matilijas to come!

  

5x7" gouache

8x10" watercolor